The Devil

by Graham Johnson

  In the twenty-first century, racism still exists, although it is now a lot less overt then it used to be, thanks in part to legislation, political correctness and the development of a better understanding of different cultures from around the world. As for Liverpool being the most cosmopolitan city in the world, the jury is still out on that one.

  My story has shown that I never allowed racism to hold me back, never allowed it to be a barrier, never allowed it to be a problem. That doesn’t suggest that I was unaware of it, but instead that I decided I was going to do something about the institutional racism, the endemic racism, the guy in the street who called me a dirty black bastard. I decided to say, ‘Fuck that shit. I’m not playing that game. I’m going to change the rules.’

  A prime example of this was in the early to mid-1980s. There were several city-centre clubs that imposed an illegal ban on black people. The security staff would stop black guys and deny them entry into the clubs. My cohorts and I took over several of these establishments. The first one was adjacent to the Adelphi Hotel. Andrew and I went down, rendered four of the doormen unconscious and allowed young black guys entry into the club. We drank free champagne all night and left without paying. That is what I call ‘rough justice’. The owners of the club contacted the authorities, who in turn contacted us. However, there was, of course, no evidence and no witnesses. It was as if nothing had happened, and we came out on top – as usual.

  To the person who takes the moral high ground and says that I acted outside and above the law, I say that sometimes the law is an arse and sometimes the law does not encourage fair play. I specialised in fitting round pegs into square holes. I shouldn’t have had to deal with a racist police force and an endemically racist community, but I adapted to my terrain and applied myself to any given situation. And I had the confidence in my own ability to achieve my goals.

  A lot of people who know me well do not like me – they find me arrogant. Arrogance is a finger on the hand of vanity. Vanity is foolishness. However, what people generally mistake for arrogance is actually my strong self-belief. Self-belief is the key to success in any endeavour you wish to undertake. If one is the ying, then the other is the yang. Name me the champion of any sport and I will show you a person who has self-belief. Self-doubt, on the other hand, is a demon that lurks in the subconscious, waiting for its chance to pounce at the most inconvenient of times. The mark of a true champion is to identify self-doubt, confront it as the demon it is and tame it. I personally took self-doubt for a walk on a lead – such was my belief in my own ability to do what was necessary to get me to where I needed to be.

  I have not always lived my life honourably or with integrity, but I have evolved into a person with both those qualities in abundance. Given the environment that I was born into and bad things that I have done, the fact that I am here today is testament to my self-belief and my ability to survive at all costs. I am a good man who is capable of bad things. However, I no longer bear ill will towards anybody. Instead, I aim to live my life out in tranquillity and harmony. But for those of you who wish to prod, poke and tease me, please do not mistake my kindness for foolishness. You will find an underlying strength that is unfathomable to the ordinary individual. I believe that I am extraordinary – I am the problem-solver extraordinaire.

  I do not stand in judgement of anybody. And I am not trying to rationalise or dilute in any way, shape or form my past behaviour. To those people that I have offended or upset during the course of my life, I unreservedly apologise. However, to my enemies who called me the Devil, I have this to say: ‘I never fucked a man who didn’t deserve to be fucked.’

  My philosophy on friendship is simple: it starts out as a clean sheet of paper with no marks or blemishes. If you do not mark that piece of paper, then neither will I. However, if you do mark the sheet, I won’t cry and I won’t moan. I won’t even let you know I am upset until I am ready to totally cover and immerse the sheet and pay you back tenfold. I will let you know why I have acted and why I feel justified in doing so. Once again, if you are an enemy and you wish me ill, I say, ‘Be careful what you wish for, because the Devil may come and get you.’

  The fact that so many of today’s young people are ready to kill each other at the drop of a hat is a sorry situation. What they don’t understand is that the man to fear is not the man who is prepared to kill you at the drop of a hat but the man who is prepared to die at the drop of a hat. The man who is prepared to die at the drop of a hat and defend his honour and integrity is a man who lives without fear of contradiction. This is a rounded, well-adjusted and capable individual. This is the person I have battled to become.

  But please don’t misunderstand me. I do not consider myself to be invincible. Not even Achilles was invincible. We all have our vulnerabilities and our weak spots. I identified mine and lived without fear of any man on the planet. However, as a consequence of the life I once led, I realise that I could still one day be murdered. I do not believe that this will necessarily be my fate, but being an intelligent and logical individual, I know that there is always the possibility.

  Now that you’ve completed the book, you’ve read about the many assassination attempts on me so far. One of the main reasons for telling my story was to emphasise the futility of a life of crime and to show the devastation that is caused to a family when one of its sons is violently taken away from them by gun murder – which is what happens every day in the black community. Gun crime is on the increase throughout Britain. How many more mothers and fathers are going to lose their sons?

  I have been honest and frank about my experiences. Today I don’t consider myself to be a Devil; I consider myself to be a warrior angel. I am involved in trying to get young men to lay down their firearms and pick up a bricklayer’s trowel or plumber’s wrench or a mechanic’s wheel brace. Anything other than a gun. Organisations such as MAG – Mother’s Against Guns – reveal on a daily basis the pain that is caused when a young man is shot, and I want to add to the good work that they are doing.

  Because I am well-known individual in Liverpool, the police have come to me and asked me to arbitrate between warring factions in my community on several occasions. They have approached me with intelligence that certain people are in danger of being shot. Superintendent Lol Carr, who is in charge of south Liverpool, has called me several times to inform me that a situation is brewing. I have always tried to assist in finding a peaceful resolution without any bodies turning up and to find a return to the status quo. That is one of my roles now.

  My intention in the future is to set up a training centre to teach the young men of my community, black or white, a trade so that they have a skill other than that of pistolero (gun man) or drug dealer – to learn how to provide for and protect their families.

  Today, some people believe that nothing has changed in Liverpool since the riots. I do not believe this. For instance, I have changed my opinion of white people. I have also changed my opinion of the police force. Although I referred to police corruption and brutality in the account of my life that I gave to Graham Johnson, I have also come across some very decent officers: Peter Street from Bromborough Police Station in the Wirral and Superindent Lol Carr in Liverpool – a big man with a big heart and a great concern for the wider community – to name just two examples. When Liverpool lost Chief Constable Norman Bettison, we lost an honest, incorruptible and dutiful police officer. I was well aware of the changes that took place when he was in office. As a result of his tenure, the police force in Liverpool now seems a lot more interested in upholding the law rather than enforcing it, as was the case pre-1981. Although racism is undoubtedly still a problem in the police, at least there are now systems in place to complain about it. Racism still occurs and is especially obvious in police officers fresh out of training college, who have an overbearing attitude at times. Racism could be eradicated in these younger officers with more extensive training, more accountability and a longer probation period.

  I now own fo
ur legit property companies and I am a commercial debt-recovery expert, but the jewel in my crown is my role as problem-solver extraordinaire – my security consultancy and arbitration company registered with the OFT. In business, I conduct myself with integrity and honour. I attempt to treat everyone with respect, with a view to receiving respect in return, thus enhancing interpersonal relationships.

  One of my proudest achievements is that I run my own rehabilitation scheme for offenders, employing people that no other company would touch and giving the hard pressed in society a second chance. You’ll be glad to hear that one of the people who has benefited from this scheme is none other than my old friend Marsellus, who is currently learning a skill after spending 15 years in jail.

  A lot of my friends and colleagues will ask, ‘Why the hell did you contribute to this book?’ My answer is that it had a cathartic effect. I laid myself bare. In 2009, I will be 50, and I wanted to share my experiences about the futility of crime and the pain and devastation that it causes. This book is a platform to reach the young men of today, to teach them that there is another way.

  My brother Andrew John was shot dead, my son Stephen was shot in the backside, my nephew Grantley was stabbed in the chest and shot in the head by a 9-mm pistol, losing the use of his left eye. Personally, I know at least 20 people that have been murdered. Go to any black community in the UK – Chapeltown in Leeds, Moss Side in Manchester or St Pauls in Bristol, to name but a few – stop a man over the age of 30 and I guarantee he will also know someone who has been murdered.

  On 8 June 2007, A.J. had been dead for 16 years. Every year on this day, I meet his brother B.J. at his graveside at 12 noon. B.J. looks so much like Andrew it’s uncanny, and we both say that not a day goes by when he doesn’t flash into our minds. Though he’s still alive in our hearts, he was ripped from us by a horrific and heinous crime. He was never allowed to fulfil his potential and to fully express himself in life. I assure you that this individual had even greater talent than me. Therefore, it is my hope and intention that this book will give me a platform to reach into the black communities up and down the land, and if I can stop one individual following the same fate as Andrew John, then it will have been worth it.

  You may ask yourself how a man called the Devil can claim to have honour and integrity. Let me just say this: it is my wholehearted intention to increase the peace and to treat everybody whom I encounter with respect. With my honour and integrity intact, I leave you with this: at times the world can be a harsh place and harsh measures are needed to survive. But all you can do is strive to be a better person.

  Stephen French

  August 2007

  GLOSSARY

  79 kalookie – variation of the card game rummy

  Babylonians – black word for police

  bag-head – drug addict

  bake – to turn powder cocaine into crack cocaine

  bally – balaclava

  bang on – spot on or accurate

  barrios – neighbourhoods

  bird – jail time

  bizzy/bizzies – police officer/the police

  blagger – armed robber or liar

  blimp – glimpse/look

  blouse notes – counterfeit money

  blowing us through/up – when a police officer asks for criminal record information or a vehicle check over a radio

  boxed it – when an action is complete; sorted

  brown – heroin

  bumped – refused to pay up

  burst a ken – to ambush a house by bursting through the front door

  bush – leaf marijuana

  capex – capital expenditure

  Charlied – under the influence of cocaine

  chi – inner strength

  chipping – cheating; specifically to hide profits from a partner

  claret – blood

  compo – compensation

  crash the gaff – to storm a building

  defo – definitely

  dough – money

  draw – cannabis

  dollars – money

  Ebonics – pertaining to black culture; something which is constructed using black influences

  exies – expenses

  face – well-known criminal

  fessed up – confessed

  fours, the – the fourth floor of a prison wing

  gaff – house or place of business

  gat – gun

  gazelle – to run at speed or to jump high and far

  gip – bother

  go-around – fight

  golly – phlegm

  granny – used to refer to old ladies employed as drug mules

  hash – cannabis resin

  heater – a gun

  Hoffmann – run (named after Dustin Hoffman, who appears in the film Marathon Man)

  intel – intelligence data

  ironed or ironed out – killed/ assassinated

  jarg – fake or phoney

  jockey – driver

  jug – jail

  kecks – trousers

  ken – house

  khazi – toilet

  KO – knockout

  la – lad

  lash – throw

  leccie – electricity

  licks – punches or blows

  mark – intended victim of a con or scam

  mithering – annoying

  MO – abbreviation of modus operandi

  narco – narcotics

  nice touch – successful criminal operation

  noncery – paedophilia

  on offer – vulnerable to arrest

  on top – underworld emergency

  one over the eight – drunk

  oppo – partner/comrade

  ounce out – split drugs into ounce batches

  outro – escape route

  ozzie – hospital

  PACE – police and criminal evidence act

  paper – cash

  parley – meeting

  pigs – the police

  plod – police officer

  punter – the victim of a mugging

  put somebody under manners – to threaten a victim into following instructions; to make someone an offer they can’t refuse

  rattler – train

  rep – reputation

  roid-head – a steroid-using bodybuilder

  rolling – mugging

  scally – youthful miscreant

  scooped – hit

  score – to buy drugs

  scrap – credit

  screw – prison warden; job

  shovel – jail

  slam on – to bring a fast-moving car to a stop using a handbrake turn

  springboked – kicked

  squeeze somebody out – induce unconsciousness by compressing the windpipe

  steward’s – steward’s inquiry, to get to the bottom of an incident

  three-piper – foursome that includes three men and one woman

  tick – credit

  ting – black word for a gun

  tippled – tipped off

  town halls – balls

  trackies – tracksuits

  tranny – radio

  tug – arrest

  twat – hit

  U-ie – U-turn

  vidi – a look (from the film A Clockwork Orange)

  white – cocaine

  yellow pedal – a police document that proves drugs have been seized